A tale of lust, class, treachery and retribution, Middleton's early 17th-century tragedy follows the ill-starred loves of three women grappling for autonomy in patriarchal Florence. Isabella is a judge's 
daughter who is hoodwinked into a dalliance with her uncle, Hippolito. Bianca is a young bride lured into an affair with the city's Duke. Livia is the highborn conniver who facilitates both intrigues, and 
later falls for Bianca's lowborn husband, Leantio. As a powerful cardinal warns that illicit unions lead to hell, the community's equipoise starts to slip, with macabre results at a court masque.